Since our committee has now arranged a new venue which has a separate space that is perfect for RPGs in that it has tables and cahirs, is quiet and is available from 1700 util late, allowing for a decent length of session, it seems rude not to try to make RPGs a regular and more widely-played thing once again.

At the moment Ninja Pete is running a medium-length adventure using Alastair's new six20 rules. I have heard whispers that Tales from Gaultria may be returning with the arrival of the new venue. I'm not sure what Darrell's plans are for the bi-weekly Encounters games he runs fo the adults in the club since he already runs Encounters at the Junior's club on a Wednesday.

In an effort to encourage new RPGs at the club I am preparing a couple of short adventures with a couple of different systems. The first of these will hopefully be happening on the first night at the Phoenix and will be (hopefully) a single session modern/horror adventure set in the small Texas town of Pinebox. For those who care this will be using the D20 Modern rules with 12tomidnight's extra Fear rules as necessary. I will have a group of pregenerated characters and a sock full of spare dice so you don't need to bring anything but yourself and a willingness to play.

I'm also planning an introductory session for Mutants & Masterminds, a D20/OGL based superhero RPG. This is still in the I'm-learning-whole-book-of-rules stage although thankfully the 2E rules which I will be using aren't too dissimilar to D20 in general. More about this to come later but expect a bag of pre-gen characters and an introductory adventure that may lead on to further games if people like it enough.

It would be great to see other people who have toyed with the idea of DMing games stepping forward and offering similar games. Maybe you have a game you've been wanting to try out but haven't had the players or perhaps you've got an idea for an awesome 3-year campaign that's been burning a hole in your skull. Either way I'm sure there are people who would be game for a game. So come on, let's take advantage of this fairly major change in the club to drive new games and new attendance.

I was under the impression that Adults Club started from 1930 and access earlier was available on an occasional ad-hoc basis?

Bearing in mind that you may well end up sharing the additional ad-hoc space with blood bowlers who may be getting started early it might not be condusive to good roleplaying if you were trying to get started early regularly?

We have access to the entire Dolphin Suite and a second smaller meeting room from 5:00pm.Kids club will run from 5:00pm til 7:30pm Adults will have access to the small meeting room until 7:30, and the Dolphin Suite thereafter.

(Clarified later to confirm that the meeting room is ours from 1700-late, with access to the Dolphin starting from 1930 for 18+).

As for early Blood Bowlers, that can be dealt with if and when it happens, we're yet to see if there is actually as much interest as I'm hoping in RPGs, but I've also rarely seen a Blood Bowl game start before 1900 at DTFC (not to say that will continue if the venue is available from an earlier time though).

We have access to the entire Dolphin Suite and a second smaller meeting room from 5:00pm.Kids club will run from 5:00pm til 7:30pm Adults will have access to the small meeting room until 7:30, and the Dolphin Suite thereafter.

(Clarified later to confirm that the meeting room is ours from 1700-late, with access to the Dolphin starting from 1930 for 18+).

As for early Blood Bowlers, that can be dealt with if and when it happens, we're yet to see if there is actually as much interest as I'm hoping in RPGs, but I've also rarely seen a Blood Bowl game start before 1900 at DTFC (not to say that will continue if the venue is available from an earlier time though).

OK, I hadn't realised that people were playing early more than they used to so that will of course have to be considered. It still shouldn't prevent RPGs from taking place in the meeting room though.

Hopefully the actual hours of the club/s, or availability of rooms can be confirmed as I'm thoroughly confused now.

Basically from 17:00 until the mini-people vacate there is one room available so early RPG/Blood Bowl probably isnt a good combo, might I suggest we go back to the olden days system of bagsying said room if you want to start super early? Other than that it should be assumed that everything can start at 19:30.

If there is a clash of "Early People" we can get away with a couple of games of BB in the Cafe area, at a push.

OK, so now that we're done finalising times, hopefully we can get this thread back on to discussion of RPGs in Daventry.

Alastair, Helen and I were talking last night after club and we all agree that the new venue is just so much better than the DTFC room was and agree with a point made elsewhere on these forums that the cafe area would be an equally good space for RPG, especially if it is not a combat-heavy game that doesn't require maps and minis.

We also touched on the system that MK RPG use

http://www.mk-rpg.org.uk/The_Constitution#Rhythm_of_Events wrote:

The club operates on an 11-week cycle of games. "Long" games will run for the first eight weeks of the cycle. These games will have players allocated before the game starts, and this membership is expected to remain constant for the duration of the game. The remaining three weeks of the cycle will consist of a number of shorter games, organized in an ad hoc manner, plus up to 2 weeks overflow time as required to finish longer games (though over-running is strongly discouraged).

Proposal and Selection of Games

Proposal for the next round of "long" games must be made before week 8 of a cycle. Allocation of members to games will be made in a fair and equitable manner in week 9 of the cycle. Selected games will start on the first week of the next 11-week cycle.

Game Leader

Each "long" game will have a nominated Game Leader who proposes, and is responsible for, that game (this will usually be gamesmaster for the game). The Game Leader may prohibit any club members from participating in a game, but must give a reason for the prohibition. The Game Leader's decision is final.

I'm not suggesting that we follow anything so rigidly, but the idea of having games that run for a period of time before taking a break, rather than games that run weekly/fortnightly ad infinitum could potentially encourage more people to try something new; be that an experienced roleplayer trying a new system, a new player trying RPGs at all, or RPGers taking abreak to get some board gaming in for a few weeks. It will certainly reduce pressure on DMs who feel like they have to always have something ready to run.

Of course it is, which is why I wouldn't want to adopt MKRPG's very strict schedule, merely take a leaf out of their book. If a DM wants to say they're running a game for 4, 40 or 400 weeks then that's up to him and his players.

As for pressure being self-imposed, I would argue that since there is a history of RP at the Vault being mainly long-running/ongoing then while there is no actual pressure on people to commit to this style, they may feel that tradition has been set and should be followed. Speaking partly from conjecture and partly from experience.

Surely it is up to the DM to state how long (If any limit at all) he wishes to run his game?

The pressure to run a game ad-infinitum as you put it is purely self imposed.

No, it's not.

It was never my intent to run practically non-stop for three years (or whatever it was). I started running games at the Vault that were designed to run for one session only. They overran - and then the pressure to deliver the end of the game you've started comes from the players. The group's expectation is that the game will be finished in some way.Essentially, my D&D game overran by three years.

That's why I decided to run strictly one-session games, with an artificial end built in, instead.

Anyway: I think that an up-front statement of the length of a game is vital information for players. It's the difference between playing a casual kick about, and joining a 5-a-side league - especially if you don't know if you enjoy the game in the first place.

Should we start a list or thread to show the games that people have got ready to run, and who's prepared to run casual games in the case of gaps in the schedule?

I'm thinking of something in this sort of format:

Name (e.g.: fanciful style, like "Tales from Gaultria", or Ronseal naming convention, like "Sci-fi exploration")

Rules system

Number of players wanted

Number of sessions

Style and tag-lines (e.g.: "Sword and sorcery adventuring in a world of dragons and goblins" or "Boldly go! A hard sci-fi Star-Trek-like exploration game")

Characters - whether these will be created in a session, provided by the GM, or whatever. Also, note here the types of characters that are expected: heroes, villains, commoners, engineers, or whatever your game needs.

From these, we can arrange some sort of schedule among the GMs, and ensure that at least one RPG is running each week, with some indication of the availability of spaces for players, and players can see what's available to join in.

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